Happy Valentine’s Day!
Lucy Boston’s Patchworks are featured in the April 2014 issue of The Quilt Life!
It is a fascinating FIVE PAGE article by Diana Boston, Lucy Boston’s daughter-in-law, with beautiful photography by Julia Hedgecoe.
POLB 
POTC
Some of the photos in The Quilt Life are familiar from Diana’s book, The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, and from my book, Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses.
Lucy Boston gives hope and inspiration to any artist or quilter—but especially those of us in our fifties and sixties.
The Life of Lucy Boston
Lucy Boston made her most famous quilt, The Patchwork of the Crosses when she was in her 60s. She was most prolific when she was in her 80s and continued to quilt in her 90s.
A LONG, CREATIVE OLD AGE, DESPITE LIMITATIONS
I cannot help but wonder how Lucy Boston’s artistic expression might have developed without three limitations that we do not face today.
1. Limited availability of fabric
Lucy Boston’s efforts to find suitable cotton fabric in England are described in letters in The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, (sold out, may be available on Amazon) one of my all-time favorite books.
Did you know that even though the war ended in 1945, sugar, meat and other food was still rationed in England until 1953-1954? Cotton fabric was in limited supply in the 1960s and 1970s too, before the revival of quilting in America. In our abundant world, it is hard to imagine.
Lucy Boston had a painter’s eye, and fabric was her palette but she lived at a time when only a very limited selection was available. Did it spur her creativity or limit her?
It’s a great time to be a quilter! In the whole history of the world there has never been more beautiful cotton fabric available than there is now. What would she have been able to create with it?
2. Failing eyesight
The last 10 or 15 years of Lucy Boston’s life were saddened by her failing eyesight. How tragic for an artist!
She tried using a magnifier and village children threaded needles for her after school. “Damn my eyes. I could keep my spirits up if I could see,” Lucy wrote in a letter to her niece when she was in her nineties (POLB, page 5).
It’s a great time to be a quilter! There have been breakthroughs in the treatment of glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetes, and other age-related causes of blindness in the past 50 years. If only there had been help for her! All of us have a better chance of keeping our sight even if we live to be 98, like Lucy Boston.
3. English Paper Piecing
Lucy Boston is famous and respected as an artist for her brilliant use of the designs in the fabric, not for her sewing method.
Joan in Australia was inspired by Lucy Boston to create stunning POTC blocks by hand (more in the albums on Inklingo IO) but she sewed with a running stitch, not English Paper Piecing, and was able to finish blocks in a fraction of the time.
English Paper Piecing is the slowest, most difficult, and least precise method in my book, but that was the method used in England at that time.
American quilting methods were not well-known in Britain, and Lucy Boston learned to sew by mending quilts that had been made in the early 1800s.
She cut her own templates from brochures and Basildon Bond writing paper. What if she had spent that time designing and sewing instead of basting and whip-stitching? A key to her artistic vision was matching identical motifs, but they were hidden from her when she was sewing!
I will always believe that she had even more exciting designs dancing in her head as she sat by the fire on long winter evenings. (That’s Maggie Smith sewing POTC in the movie From Time to Time based on one of Lucy Boston’s children’s books.)
We are grateful for the magnificent quilts, her delightful books, the impressive garden and the restored manor house, but I also think of “the lost quilts of Lucy Boston.” How many more masterpieces would we be admiring when we visit Hemingford Grey if she had had a better, faster method?
It’s a great time to be a quilter! Even if we choose EPP instead of faster, easier methods, we can print freezer paper templates and the best of everything is readily available. (One of many EPP Tutorials)
We have many options. We can sew by machine or with a running stitch by hand to create her designs in a fraction of the time, with or without printing the shapes on fabric with Inklingo.
Fern in Singapore has finished a spectacular POTC quilt using Inklingo to print the shapes on fabric.
“I attempted and abandoned Lucy Boston’s quilt some 12 years ago. Inklingo makes it easy-peasy to make a complex, exquisite and magnificent quilt. I am having so much fun with mine now.”
THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
As the article in The Quilt Life explains, music and gardening were also passions of Lucy Boston. She had a large collection of classical recordings. During the Second World War, she regularly hosted musical evenings for RAF pilots in her ancient manor house, as described in Diana’s book.
Given Lucy Boston’s passion for music, it seems appropriate that I have a favorite song running through my head while I write.
It’s not Lucy Boston’s classical music, but she makes me think the best is yet to come.
All quilters would choose to be as creative and artistic as Lucy Boston was in her sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. Lucy Boston showed us how. She is our heroine.
We need to believe that the best IS yet to come for us.
LEARN MORE ABOUT LUCY BOSTON
- Diana Boston’s website—The Manor at Hemingford Grey
- My website—Main Lucy Boston Page (includes video)
The All About Inklingo blog is also searchable. There are dozens of articles about Lucy Boston, her quilts, English Paper Piecing, fussy cutting, etc. (right sidebar).
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I hope you are feeling loved on Valentine’s Day. Lucy Boston is certainly well-loved by quilters all over the world every day of the year.
“Whatever she touched, whether it was literature, horticulture, topiary, needlework or simple everyday life, bore the imprint of her unerring sense of beauty and quality.” (Lucy Boston Remembered: Reminiscences Collected by Diana Boston)
What a legacy!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Linda & Monkey
Thanks for another chance to win.
Linda, I am anxious to try Inklingo! The gift certificate would be a great help. Thank you for offering it, and making so many blocks and pattern available! You and Monkey stay warm:)
The first time I experienced Lucy Bosto’s quilts I was entranced! Have been dreaming and planning ever since. I do have your Lucy Boston book and many of the Inklingo designs.
Thank you for giving us so many great ideas.
I am so intrigued by your designs-just trying to clean out some other projects before going on to these! Your designs are truly a work of art and an inspiration to many!
I would LOVE to win some Inklingo! The POTC blocks have long been a favorite of mine and the only way I think I would ever try them is as inklingo printed shapes.
Linda, thanks so much for the chance to win more Inklingo.
I can always find something to buy on the Inklingo site. Heck, I might even reserect my Dear Jane soon! It is too cold here to do anything else…
Thank you Linda
I love the Patchwork of the Crosses blocks. Am putting those on my Inklingo to do list.
What a great post! So filled with wonderful quilting history… I’ll have to look into that magazine subscription… I am just coming back to quilting after several years hiatus, gasp! I am just getting started with Inklingo and am loving it! This is truly an evolutionary leap for the quilting world! Thank you as well for the chance to win such a generous gift certificate!
Hugs from a new devotee 😀
Beth P
love the concept
What a generous offer you are making. One which I would love to win. As a new user of Inklingo, I know that I would easily find a good use for the gift certificate. It is being such a great help to me in doing Bonnie’s Celtic Solstice. Thanks for the opportunity to you, Linda, and Monkey, of course. Betsy
LOVE Inklingo! I’m using the Celtic Solstice shapes right now. Making the king size so it’s a long process. Thank goodness for Inklingo for making everything easier. I love the look of the POTC blocks and have been considering buying the set. A $50 gift certificate could really help with that. *wink* JaNaye
I am loving your Celtic Soltice shapes, I am hand piecing the quilt, and having fun. I would really like to have $50. to buy another collection. Helen
Would love to win that and ” play” with it, thanks
I love Inklingo. Without it I would never attempt to make some of the quilts I am making. Great product!
I love Inklingo – unfortunately, my budget restricts what I can buy. I have so many quilts I would love to make but one at a time, I guess. The members of the guild I’m in are always giving me a hard time about my hand piecing but I just love it, especially with Inklingo!!!
Thanks so much for all the great options you’ve given us.
Interesting article. Inklingo makes it so nice you can do hand sewing or machine depending what you feel like doing.
Lucy Boston is such an inspiration to those of us who are just starting to think of ourselves as “getting a bit older” and still have hundreds of quilts in us. Denial and really strong magnifying glasses, and of course Inklingo, all help! Thanks for all you do for us, Linda!
Very interesting story about Lucy Boston. Thank you. Would love to win the Inklingo certificate. I’ve been looking at the Joseph’s Coat pattern.
Linda, I have so enjoyed your Inklingo method. Would love a chance at the $50.00 gift certificate drwing. You have opened up a new world for quilters.Congratulations to Canada and the Hockey win. Vici Fallin
Now that I’ve gotten hooked on handwork in the evenings, I could use another Inklingo project. Or perhaps a Lucy Boston book. Hmm, it’s all so tempting!
I love the Lucy Boston Quilt. I have been practicing on my EPP and think that it would be so much faster to have the Inklingo pattern! I have tried the free templates and have used some of them for pactice blocks, and find it easy to work with. So would love to win this prize! Thank You!!
I love your product
Beautiful patchwork and quilts! Very interesting. Thanks for the chance to win Inklingo products.
Very interesting post! Congratulations on the article. And thanks for the chance to win more great Inklingo products!
I just found your blog and website. Fascinated. Thanks for this chance.
Congratulations on the article. Can’t wait to see it in print! Thanks for the chance to win an awesome gift.
I loved reading about Lucy Boston and would enjoy spending InkLingo dollars on her pattern. I shared a couple of blocks with my friends at my Lace Guild meeting and they thought it was amazing how some of her blocks were fussy cut. Funny how they have no patience to quilt, but they make handmade lace. LOL!
I would love to win $50 from Inklingo!
Reading the article spurred me to re-read the book by Lucy’s daughter, Diana Boston. Then to dream about making/finishing my version of Patchwork of the Cross. My husband has declining eyesight because of macular degeneration but has not been helped by treatments. I should get my quilt finished so he can see it! Inklingo mades it so easy to piece!
Diane
History through sewing and quilting. Marvelous!
I think Inklingo is a great idea, my pc and printer is currently not talking the same language, have to wait for hubby to fix this one. To have all the stitching lines printed on my fabric, is priceless. The time it saves, not too mention the accurate blocks, when piecing, cannot be matched by anything else. Thank you for a brilliant way of piecing!
This so wonderful, I just finished my first POTC! I did as a winter carry along, and wanted to print a bunch of same shapes my I hadn’t realized how much fussy cutting was such a part of Lucy Boston, but now that I see all these amazing quilts, I think I’ll be making another one! Thanks for all your inspiration and changing my….”Quilting Life”
Definitely am trying an inklingo quilt! (as soon as I can find a place that isn’t covered in WIP……………
I’ve seen a few POTC quilts and they have all been beautiful! I think I need to put it on my quilt bucket list.
Of course I want to win. I have a lovely pile of Asian fabrics that are just waiting, and waiting, and waiting.
Isn’t it great to see Lucy Boston make in Quilt Life!!! Thanks for offering the gift certificate to celebrate!
interesting story your website is great
Don’t get Quilt Life, but have Lucy Boston POtC. Someday hope to get to it – have some great burgundy fabric that I’m anxious to “fussy print” for it.
Very interesting post. I enjoy reading about other crafters lives.
Would love to win. I love Inklingo. It makes curved piecing a breeze and really would love to have the POTC pattern.
Love to win as Canada did. If we couldn’t win, I am so glad Canada did.
Just revisiting Inklingo after a few years off. I want to make the Pies and Tarts quilt. Thanks Linda for all your help.
I would love to win the $50 Gift certificate. Thanks for offering. I can’t wait to see the new Quilt Life magazine.
What an amazing artist Lucy Boston was. And what a generous gift certificate you are offering — thank you for the chance to win.
I recently took a class on EPP using the POTC book as inspiration. That’s how I found out about Inklingo and I definitely want to try your product. Thanks for offering this drawing!
Linda, wanted to tell you I am loving Inklingo! I finally tried it with Celtic Solstice and I have just about convinced myself to give POTC a whirl…adding to my other WIP…lol! I’ve been admiring the POTC blocks for months, but the QATW group will probably get me moving along.
Thanks for the chance to win $50 of Inklingo products!!!
Linda, thanks so much for the chance to win a $50 gift Certificate. I’m in a web guild, Quilting Around the World and a woman there has started a thread on this quilt. I’m gong to post this contest over there, hopefully you will get some new fans.
cindy
Like Quilt Life but LOVE Inklingo. Thanks for all you do.
Linda,
You are always so full of wonderful information and so motivating in all the various techniques you present. Lucy will also be a motivating influence for me as I didn’t realize that she was so productive even as she aged. Nancy